Justin Sunam-Wong's Crazy Thoughts: Pitas Folks BOLEH! Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, @Desonny brought the plight of folks in six villages in the district of Pitas to the attention of @PhilipGolingai. Philip, who is a member of our not so secretive WhatsApp group by now, Barang Naik, mooted a road trip to Pitas. @Saroki19 and I took up the challenge. Soon we were joined by @RismaRobin, our designated photographer who spent most of her waking hours doing handstand. She is a Yoga practitioner and I call her Stretch for this trip.

The objective was to observe first hand the living condition and bring awareness to the plight of villagers in Kg Mandamai, Kg Kobon, Kg Perupok, Kg Dowokon, Kg Maliau Pusat and Kg Maliau Layung; In particular to their endeavor to build a road linking them to the outside world.

Truth to be told, I did not know what good I or we could do by going to Pitas. Building a road seemed to be a monumental task but we thought if the villagers are positively mad enough to take on this challenge, the least we could do was to highlight and bring awareness to this commendable ‘Kami Boleh’ spirit. Weeks before the road trip, we started a campaign on Twitter and Facebook under the hashtag #PitasRoad to promote this road trip and the website www.pitasroad.org which was set up by supporters of Pitas folks. As to be expected, there were cynics who responded with disparaging remarks and some did not even bother to find out more what #PitasRoad was all about before making comments. Fortunately, these cynics are in the minority whereas our supporters are aplenty.

@PhilipGolingai, @Saroki19 and @Desonny flew in to Sabah specifically for this trip on their own expense. We started our journey from Kota Kinabalu on the morning of 13 September 2014, a journey of more than 200 Kilometres. There were eight of us in our entourage i.e. @PhilipGolingai, @Saroki19, @Desonny, @RismaRobin, @PetrusConrad, Darrel, Stevie G and myself. About three hours later, we arrived at Pitas town where gundohing Maklin Masiau, the gentleman who is spearheading the road building, was waiting for us with a few villagers who had come with their four wheel drives to ferry us via the proposed road to Kg Dowokon where Maklin has arranged for us to put up at his younger brother's house. So we split up and Petrus, Darrel and I decided to take a beat up looking Isuzu Trooper driven by our driver named John. John is a young looking Dusun chap with a ready smile and ever ready to answer our questions but from his demeanor, you could sense that he has seen and done it all. Having spent the last three hours or so, travelling. I was very eager for our journey to end very soon. So I asked John, "Bos! Berapa lama lagi sampai di kampung?' John sympathetically answered, 'Satu jam lagi bos. Sori lah bos, ini kereta kebun. Tiada aircon.' I asked how far was the journey and John told me about 8 Kilometre and I remember thinking it was odd that an 8 Kilometre journey had to take an hour to reach because back in Beaufort, my farm is 11 Kilometre away from town and it takes only less than 20 minutes drive for me to reach there. Soon, I would find out why it took that long.

After about half an hour, we reached the launching area for our journey; At the edge of an Oil Palm plantation. There our convoy stopped and someone gestured for John to lead the way. Obviously John's driving skill was trusted. The road was narrow and could only accommodate one vehicle at a time. It is basically a dirt road. Occasionally rocks will jut out from the earth making it a bumpy ride. Only passable by four wheel drives driven by experienced drivers with cool composure like John. There were sharp turns, steep descents and ascents. The road cuts through hills and ravines in some places. At one stage, I wondered what would happen if we meet an oncoming vehicle, there was simply no space to give way in some places. I wouldn't want to be in John's seat then. The road leading to Kg Dowokon was like a serpent snaking through hills and ravines. I thought the person who designed the road was either a sadist or an off road enthusiast. In some places, we wondered why they did not cut through the hill in a straight line instead of meandering abrupt left and right turns. I found out later that they have only a Hitachi Excavator to work with. They are ill equipped for the task. Anyway, I shall let the pictures taken tell the story of our arduous and treacherous journey to Kg Dowokon.